Do you have any specific tips on learning to keep kosher? Advice like what dairy substitutes work best or a reliable place to get recipes would be great. I grew up in a house that mixes dairy and meat for most meals so any help would be greatly appreciated. If you've already answered this, could you give a link to the post? I couldn't find one, but that might be because tumblr's search function doesn't work.
Sure! Here is a post I made about keeping kosher. Substitutes are your best friend. If a recipe calls for butter, using vegetable oil instead could be better if you're eating it with a meat meal. Margarine is also a great substitute when making baked goods. Mixing lemon juice with a nut milk gives you buttermilk.
In brownies, using orange juice instead of milk makes the flavor really pop. I love doing this on shabbat so I can have a dessert after a meat meal. You could also just use any other nut milk, or oat milk (just make sure it has a pareve symbol on it, I've seen some oat milks that are still OU D because it's sometimes manufactured in dairy machines or factories). Pareve chocolate is a miracle to be appreciated. Using egg noodles or zucchini noodles are great when you want to have a meat-based dish, and pareve bread for meat-based sandwiches.
I love using vegan or vegetarian plant-based meats in my dishes.* For example, I use vegan ground beef in my lasagna, so I can still use regular noodles and cheese. Plant-based chicken is also great for skillets or pasta. You could also just use fish instead, as it's considered pareve. I don't like the taste of vegan cheese, so I'd much rather use real cheese and vegan meat, but it's always an option. If you don't have meat but still want a filling meal, using grains such as quinoa, or starches like potatoes, can help with that.
As for finding recipes, there are a few kosher cooking blogs online. To find things I usually just search whatever food I want followed by "kosher" and it's usually there. If I can't find a recipe for it, I use a regular recipe with the above substitutes to make it kosher. Buying kosher cookbooks is also a good idea. I don't recommend just searching for "jewish cookbooks" because sometimes those include non-kosher dishes, so search specifically for kosher cookbooks.
*Some Jews have customs that don't allow them to eat vegan meats due to abiding by the spirit of the law, and the fact that the appearance of eating something not kosher could mislead others. It is best to discuss this with your rabbi if you think this may be an issue.















